After 20 years of mtb ridin' - I have selected one of the worst breakdowns that I feel is possible. Keep in mind, this is not a wipeout or crash but bike malfunction that prevents or hinders riding normally. You do not get hurt in this... All sorts of things have happened over the years to myself or fellow riders and I will report on this incident as it was just plain incapacitating for the bike.. Riding along the bike started to skip a bit while pedaling under load. It progressively got worse, even though a few attempts to correct it with derailleur/cable/shifter adjustments. All mtb riders have probably had this type of shifting problem happen if they ride enough! Soon it became difficult to ride, and still could not figure out what was happening to the bike.. and then, something "snapped" and now the pedals would spin freely without moving the rear wheel... so now you could not pedal only coast/push the bike... ok... not too bad... so I was coasting my way back and pushing the bike when needed and the rear wheel totally locked up and now the bike could not be pushed or ridden. It was now necessary to carry the bike back to the trailhead - so with several miles to go it was sort of a pain - however, I will report some good things... I was with two of my best friends - the weather was fine - and I got some great exercise!! The problem was caused by failure of the freehub body (this connects the rear cassette to the hub - so that when you rotate the cassette the wheel turns). It is like an interlocking connection between the cassette and the hub. First it had started to slip (skipping).. then it broke altogether(had to push bike *cassette not connected to the hub).. and then it locked up (broken pieces jammed) - resulting in carrying the bike as the rear wheel would not turn!! A similar breakdown almost as bad was when my front tire "tacoed" bigtime and the wheel hit the forks due to the warping - so I had to disconnect the brakes fully and could not weight the bike so had to push it, and at times carry it. Funny thing the taco happened while going around an easy corner on the trail, so I think the spoke tension was poor as I did not hit anything or wipeout as the wheel just went under and bent while cornering. CoRdo had a bad breakdown as well - when his front rim gave out (due to years of brake wear) and split in half and collapsed while riding - luckily he stopped no problem and unhurt, but could not roll the bike so had to carry it for a few miles.... AND I'm sure some of you have had reason to carry the bike as well :) |
